On Thursday night, 11/21/13, the Sexual Violence group went to an event called activist night that was hosted by NOW: Nation Organization for Women NYC. NOW is an organization that works on numerous different women’s issues concerning gay rights, abortion rights, equality in the workplace, and sexual violence. When we arrived to the building, we were sent up to what seemed to be a small a apartment/living space filled with women siting in chairs around in a circle. The discussion of the night was on feminist philosophy and famous feminist philosophers. There were roughly about fifteen other women besides our group, including two women from NOW who led the discussion. The other women in the room differed from those who had come to activist night before (NOW hosts the event monthly) and knew a lot about women empowerment, feminist philosophy, and feminist history, and those who were simply curious about feminism. The two leaders of the discussion spoke mostly about one feminist philosopher named Judith Butler. Judith Butler’s philosophy was about “gender performativity” and how gender is a role that each individual plays in their life. We watched a video about Judith Butler and she said “We act, talk, and go about our lives in ways that are expected from our gender. Nobody is a gender when they are born, they play the role of that gender once they grow older and make their way through life.” The very interesting video sparked a large open discussion where people said the following things: “You are born in a society where there are standards for each gender.” “The idea to some that you are supposed to act and play a role I’m society that’s due to their physical appearance is absolutely terrifying.” The group agreed with Butler and that society puts a common pressure for everyone to act like their biological sex. The discussion moved into talking about the actual expectations for each gender where people said the following: “I’m not expected to call a boy if I like him. If I did, I’d be a whore.” “I notice how almost everyone here is crossing their legs right now. We women were never taught that, it just happened. If a man were to ever cross his legs in public, he’d be made fun of for acting too ‘feminine’.” The talk ended with a group member speaking about what the next step was for women all around, “There’s always something to do.” The discussion wasn’t directly about sexual violence, but it was great to have some background knowledge on feminist philosophy and to meet some great, interesting people.
